The only downside to using frame mode is after you use it, you'll never go back to normal mode again! Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit, but it's a really cool effect. Like everyone says, you lose some vertical resolution, and it's hard to conform it to "true 24p". Blah, blah, blah. Taking all that into consideration, it gives you that choppy "film-style" type look. You might not want to use it in every situation, like fast-action sports. Maybe you do though, it's a creative decision.

I shoot in Frame almost all the time. I work in slow motion in most of my wildlife footage.

I do not find the supposed loss of resolution even noticable as a rule.

The main reason I shoot in frame is because of the look of the slow motion I get.

When we see things happen in motion it is the blurring effect that gives us the impression of slow motion and the speed of movement. for most of what i do, lots of bird flight, the slow motion shot in frame mode at 1/60th of a second gives me the look closest to how my eyes perceive it in nature.

When I started shooting seriously, I thought that video is video, and made no attempt to make my video more filmic. As I sorted out how I like to see my footage I have unintentionally made it so it is in fact more film like.

So, it is going to be what you like to see in your footage and it will develop over time.

ummm, i shoot action sports with frame mode...don't have any problems. slow motion can get tricky if i try and slow it down too much and did not set the camera up to intentionally shoot some slow motion shots.

I will be shooting a stop motion animation music video this week with my GL2. This will be the first such video I cut together. Any advice on settings I should use? Since I am capturing still frames, will it be OK to set the shutter speed to 1/30, 1/15. or 1/8 (the GL has great low light capabilities at 1/8! hehe). I am tempted to use frame mode because I am unsure if my capture software will grab a progressive frame when the GL is in normal mode. (I know frame mode is not true progressive, but it fakes it pretty well in my opinion.)

Hey, I shoot in 30p (frame mode) and im also thinking about switching to 60i and then transfering to editing program to deinterlace.. I have built a 35mm dof machine and it works great. If you need any help on building one, I will be glad to help you!

Keep in mind that when shooting in 60i and converting later, the timeslice is different and you won't have a "real" reproduction of any motion in the frame. With 24fps and 1/48th shutter, you are catching one-half of every 1/24th of a second (hence the strobing/judder on fast motion in the frame). At 60i with a 1/60 shutter, you are catching 100% of the motion and the software is trying (I emphasize trying) to replicate the motion characteristics that it would normally get from the smearing of the subject from point a to point b over a given timeslice.

As it does this it's trying to rectify the disparate timeslices that make up this moment in time from shorter, incomplete frames (interlaced is...um...interlaced). You will never get true motion from interpolation, although you my get close, but since the goal is to make it look like 24p according to all of these "film look" threads, the interpolation of motion here is what breaks the image when converting.

Don't test your footage on still images, you will always get the same result...footage shot in 60i is phenomenal as the interpolation doesn't have to do any actual work, it just mushes together the fields and calls it good. Rather test people running across the frame, the camera panning with them running (look at what happens to the background), camera pans (if you're slow enough, it'll look alright...any faster and the fields will separate so heavily that you'll have the software throwing away 50% of the resolution over the whole image anyway. Since the goal is replicating the motion of 24p, test the motion of the conversion. Otherwise, your beautiful tests of the conversion will leave you scratching your head when your car chase turns to mush after conversion.

Best case, shoot your talking heads and ping pong dialog in 60i and shoot motion shots in 30p/24p. More importantly, throw more light on the scene to get the exposure up higher as shooting 24p - 1/48 shutter pulls in half the light that shooting 60i - 1/60 shutter does. Your graininess should go away as you reintroduce the light you're taking away by capturing 50% of the time rather than 100% (the 50% is what you wanted though - hence the conversion).

Thanks for the info guys, hopefully I can shoot some footage in the comming weeks. Unfortunately my next few Saturdays will be spent (drinking) at Universal Orlando's Mardi Gras, and Sundays recovering from Saturday night. I guess I can shoot some hung over footage of my friends and I and see about converting to 24p. I have a friend helping me build a 35mm dof machine. Thanks for offering to help Tatsuya, I'll post on my progress if any.

how well does frame mode footage match regular interlaced GL2 footage? I am thinking about shooting some stuff that will be played back in slow motion with some stuff that has already been recorded in the normal setting.

There is a slightly different motion signature between the two approaches. The frame mode does look like film to some people, where as the typical interlaced is what we've seen in video production forever. For you, the primary question will be your delivery method. If you are shooting for Web based distribution, its better that you shoot in frame mode, as computers use progressive scan, which is essentially the same as Frame mode. Shooting in frame mode will eliminate the interlace scan lines that you occasionally see in some films on the web.

If you are shooting for DVD, it really doesn't matter. There will be a slightly less "smooth" quality to the frame mode, and I suppose if things are really moving fast in a close-up kinda way, then standard interlaced mode might be "slightly" better. It depends more on the look you want.

Barry

Last edited by Barry Goyette; December 22nd, 2008 at 12:24 PM.
Reason: (edited as original poster's question was removed, apparently for content, if the moderator wishes to remove this post, that'